Augusta’s Julia Clukey finished fourth in the second and final Norton USA Luge Seeding Race over the weekend at Park City, Utah, and fell one spot short of qualifying for the U.S. team that will begin World Cup competition in Austria later this month.
The Vancouver Olympian was edged out for the final World Cup berth by 20-year-old Raychel Germaine of Roswell, Georgia, who finished third in both the Park City seeding race as well as the first seeding race held a week earlier at Lake Placid, New York.
Clukey finished fourth in both seeding races.
Sochi Olympic bronze medalist Erin Hamlin, Emily Sweeney and Summer Britcher all were exempt from qualifying through the seeding races as a result of their 2014-15 World Cup results, leaving just one spot entering the second seeding race.
Sweeney won both seeding races, just ahead of Britcher at the Park City event.
Germaine, who is moving up from the junior ranks after winning the 2014 Norton Junior National Championship, was able to stay ahead of Clukey and grab the last spot.
The 30-year-old Clukey, who recently announced her intention to continue competing professionally with the goal of qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, went down fighting.
She posted the second-best final run, which was faster than Germaine but not by enough to overtake her in total race time or total seeding points.
The Park City venue generally has not been kind to Clukey, who was edged out of an Olympic berth here two seasons ago by only 0.013 of a second.
The 30-year-old Cony High School graduate did rebound the day after the final seeding race to finish third at the Norton National Championships, also held at Park City on the course used during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Sweeney won the two-run event in 2 minutes, 57.922 seconds, with Britcher second in 2:58.165, and Clukey earning the bronze medal in 2:58.374.
Clukey won the Norton National Championship in 2012 and finished second in 2009.
